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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., May 19, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Endocyte, Inc. (Nasdaq:ECYT), a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted small molecule drug conjugates (SMDCs) and companion imaging diagnostics for personalized therapy, announced today that the final progression free survival (PFS) data from the Phase 2 PRECEDENT clinical trial of EC145 in women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer will be presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), to be held June 3-7 in Chicago, Illinois.

"EC145 is the first drug to demonstrate a significant improvement in PFS in a randomized study in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The results are particularly important for these patients because there are very few treatment options available. In the U.S., no new drug has been approved for women with platinum resistant ovarian cancer in over 10 years," said Ron Ellis, president and chief executive officer of Endocyte. "We have already advanced EC145 into its Phase 3 evaluation in the PROCEED trial, which is designed to replicate PRECEDENT's success and is now open to accrual."

EC145 is a conjugate of the vitamin folate and a very potent vinca alkaloid. Folate is required for cell division, and rapidly dividing cancer cells over-express folate receptors in order to capture enough folate to support cell division. By combining a chemotherapy drug with folate, EC145 targets cancer cells while avoiding most normal cells. This targeted approach is designed to provide treatment with potent drugs while providing lower toxicity than standard chemotherapy.

EC20 is a folate-targeted molecular imaging agent that is being developed as a non-invasive method to identify tumors that over-express folate receptors. These tumors are the molecular target of Endocyte's folate-targeted therapeutic compounds such as EC145. To date, EC20 has been administered to over 350 patients and has been found to be well tolerated.

About Endocyte

Endocyte is a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Endocyte uses its proprietary technology to create novel small molecule drug conjugates (SMDCs) and companion imaging diagnostics for personalized targeted therapies. The company's SMDCs actively target receptors that are over-expressed on diseased cells, relative to healthy cells. This targeted approach is designed to enable the treatment of patients with highly active drugs at greater doses, delivered more frequently, and over longer periods of time than would be possible with the untargeted drug alone. The companion imaging diagnostics are designed to identify patients whose disease over-expresses the target of the therapy and who are therefore more likely to benefit from treatment.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including descriptions of Endocyte's plans to seek conditional marketing authorizations from the EMA. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve significant risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.